AGI – Doctor Giorgio Galanti, former director of Sports Medicine at the Florentine hospital of Careggi, was sentenced to one year by the Florence GUP in the trial for the death of the football player Davide Astori, in which he was charged with manslaughter.
At the expense of the doctor Giorgio Galanti were also arranged provisional payments that exceed a total of one million euros in favor of the partner Francesca Fioretti and the couple’s daughter, Vittoria, as well as the parents and brothers of Davide Astori, who had formed a civil party in the process that took place with the abbreviated procedure.
“We were amazed by this sentence, which we will read and challenge”, commented the lawyer Siegfried Fenyes, defender of Galanti.
“I am very happy and proud that finally justice has been done for Davide even though I am sorry that he cannot be here with us today. I sincerely hope that this sentence can save even one life“So Francesca Fioretti, the player’s partner.
Davide Astori tragically died before a football match. On 4 March 2018 he was found lifeless in a hotel in Udine that hosted Fiorentina before the match against Udinese in the 27th round of the Serie A championship.
He was the captain of the purple team, although in his career Astori had also worn the shirts of Cagliari and Roma, and was also part of the Italian national team. The public prosecutor of the Friulian capital opened a file. Subsequently an autopsy was performed and the medical records of the player were acquired, containing the suitability for competitive activity.
In June 2018, the documents were transmitted to the Florence prosecutor’s office, because medical responsibility was hypothesized precisely in relation to the medical-sports examinations carried out by the professional. The Tuscan prosecutors entrusted advice to the specialist from Padua, Domenico Corrado, and on the basis of that opinion, they entered in the register of suspects the last doctor who had signed the suitability of Astori, the director of sports medicine of Careggi (now retired ) Giorgio Galanti.
The position of another sports doctor, Francesco Stagno, who had visited the player at the time of Cagliari, will then be archived. For Galanti, however, the request for indictment was triggered. According to the consultants of the prosecutor’s office, the results of the stress tests to which falconer had been subjected seven months before his death, should have suggested further investigations, which would have revealed the arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy from which Astori suffered.
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The choreography at the Franchi stadium in honor of captain Davide Astori
For the defense, no examination could have discovered Astori’s cardiomyopathy
But the advice from Padua was answered by the defense of Professor Galanti, who overturns the conclusions of the accusation and establishes that no examination could have indicated that ailment in the player’s heart, which never had symptoms. For this reason, the judge ordered a third appraisal, during the procedure with the shortened procedure to which the accused, accused of manslaughter, decided to join.
To sign the third report, a cardiologist and a coroner from Turin, professor Fiorenzo Gaita and doctor Gianluca Bruno. “The ECG holter indicated in the cocis guidelines was not performed – write the two experts -. He could have, but not with high probability (given the variability of arrhythmias), identify major arrhythmias which, if documented, would have led to further third level investigations “.
As for the possibilities of avoiding the death of the athlete, the prompt intervention of a defibrillator would have been necessary. But the death of Astori occurred in his sleep, while he was alone in the hotel room.
For the prosecutor, Galanti’s negligence during that examination deserves a sentence: one year and six months the request of the prosecutor Antonino Nastasi, also taking into account the ‘discount’ provided by the shortened procedure. Francesca Fioretti, former companion of Astori and mother of their child, has always participated in the last hearings.
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